My Sins Return To Visit Me
by 2remember
Summary: “I have long feared that my sins would return to visit me, and the cost would be more than I could bear.”
1. The Cost

Warning: Rated for language, intense suspense situations involving children and nudity.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

**Author's Note:**

For the purposes of this story, Mrs. Ishiyama's first name is 'Miko.'

* * *

She was in the kitchen, cleaning vegetables for the evening's meal. _The children should be home momentarily_, she thought to herself, _I need to make sure Hiroki gets right on his homework, he's been falling behind in Math. Yumi can finish with the vegetables and set the table and..._

The phone rang. She answered it, "hello?"

"Miko Ishiyama?" said the caller.

"Yes, this is she," she replied.

"I have a message for you," the caller said.

There was a moment of silence, then she heard a scream over the phone, "Aaaaaaaaaaiiiii! Stopppppppp! It hurts! Mommy! Aaaaaaaaaaiiiii!"

It was her son, Hiroki.

Immediately after that, "Bastards! Leave him alone! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Yumi.

After a moment, the caller was back, "I trust you understand my message."

"What do you want," she said, shaken, "we have very little money, but whatever you want..."

"What I want is for this whole business to be over," the caller said, "very soon, you will be contacted by the police. Tell them nothing, or what you just heard will be a pale imitation of what will happen to them. Don't tell your husband either. You will be contacted later with further instructions. We can see and hear your every move, so don't try anything stupid."

"I understand," was all she could say.

"Good. And by the way, don't forget to pick up some tampons at the store, you used the last one this morning." The call ended.

She hung up the phone, visibly shaken. _What was going on?_

_

* * *

_

An hour after she received the phone call, the police came to the Ishiyama residence.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but are you Miko Ishiyama, mother of Yumi Ishiyama?" the officer asked when she answered the door.

"Yes, how may I help you?" she replied, trying to retain her composure.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your daughter was kidnapped at around 3 pm today. She was walking home with an acquaintance when she was grabbed off the street, about three blocks from here. The young man was seriously injured, and is currently being treated at the hospital, but he was able to tell us a little bit. If I may, could I come in and ask you some questions?"

She allowed a little of her terror show. "Yes, please come in," she said, her voice starting to shake.

The officer came in and politely asked his questions; could she think of any reason why someone would want to take her daughter; was there anyone out of the ordinary seen in the neighborhood recently?

While the officer was talking, he received a call on his cell phone. He spoke with the caller for a moment, then ended the call.

"Mrs. Ishiyama, I'm sorry to be the bearer of more bad news, but I just got a report that your son, Hiroki Ishiyama, has disappeared from school. No one can account for his whereabouts from about 3 pm today."

She screamed and broke down and started to cry, now. She had held back her tears as long as she could, making sure the policeman had no reason to suspect that she already knew about the abductions. But her terror finally overwhelmed her and she collapsed to the floor. The officer helped her into a chair and tried to give her some reassurance.

* * *

By the time her husband got home, the house was swarming with police. When he arrived, Takeo Ishiyama was confronted by several police officers, demanding some identification from him. As he complied with the request, he demanded to know what was going on. He fainted when they told him. 

Miko had recovered in the meantime, and was listening to what the detective now assigned to the case was telling her. His voice was far away to her, like a muffled sound at the other end of a tunnel. The only thing she truly heard was the screams of her children.

The police finally left them alone, leaving two uniformed officers in a patrol car stationed in front of the house.

Dinner was forgotten about, neither she or her husband had any appetite. He shuffled about the house for a few minutes, then staggered upstairs, a broken man. Miko heard his sobs as he climbed the stairs.

She sat at the kitchen table, lost in her nightmare. She was so lost that she was startled when her cell phone rang. She scrambled for it, and answered the call.

"That was a very good job, Mrs. Ishiyama," the caller said, "you did very well."

"What do you want," Miko asked the man, "I told you earlier we have little money..."

"This isn't about money," the man said, "and your children are safe, for now. What happened earlier wasn't permanent, just painful. I have been told by my employer to tell you that you have one day, tomorrow. After that, you will meet with us at a location we will give you tomorrow night."

"And what about my children," she said.

"What about your children is if you don't show up at the appointed place at the appointed time, you'll spend the rest of your life wondering where all of the pieces of them are. I will call back tomorrow night."

_Click!_

_

* * *

_

In front of a computer terminal in a computer lab, three levels below the basement of an old factory, four friends were listening in on the phone conversation Mrs. Ishiyama just had.

After the call ended, the blond headed boy sitting before the computer terminal asked, "Were you able to get a phone number?"

"Yes, Jeremie, I was," came a voice from the terminal. On the screen, there was the image of an older man in a display window. The reply came from the man.

"I not only have a phone number," said the man, "I was also able to isolate the cell tower the call was coming from."

Another window popped open, displaying a map of Paris. A red dot blinked for a moment, then the map zoomed in on the location. It was in the Warehouse District of the city, a maze of warehouses and light manufacturing.

"About how big an area are we talking about," the boy asked.

"Approximately one half a kilometer radius," the man replied, "that's a lot of territory to cover."

"Can you do it?"

"Yes, I'm monitoring that tower and the ones around it for any call coming from that unit. If I find anything more, I'll contact you immediately."

"Thank you, Papa," said the pink haired girl standing next to the boy in the chair.


	2. More Than I Can Bear

Warning: Rated for language, intense suspense situations involving children and nudity.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

* * *

Miko did not sleep that night. Over and over, her mind replayed that first phone call, the darkness forming grotesque images of what was happening to her children. Each scenario played out worse and worse. The scant reassurance the man gave her, _what happened earlier wasn't permanent, just painful_, gave her no sense of peace at all. As the night dragged on, her dark fantasies got darker.

Morning was no respite from her despair. Takeo did not go to work that day, didn't even get out of bed. She called his employer and hers, explaining to them that they had a family crisis and wouldn't be in. By that time, news of the kidnapping had made it to the news services, so their employers were quite understanding.

She shuffled around the house, doing this and that, filling in the time. Finally, the house closed in too much, so she dressed and left.

She drove about aimlessly for a while, her mind a blank. She ignored the rising hunger in her body. She just drove.

Finally, she ended up at the hospital. She didn't remember deciding to go there, she just showed up. She found a parking spot, and went in. She knew who she was looking for.

At the receptionist's desk, she asked, "what room is Ulrich Stern in?"

The lady checked her computer for a moment, then replied, "room 1023. He has no restrictions on his chart, so you should be able to go right on up."

Miko took the elevator up to the tenth floor. When she got there, she walked down until she saw room 1023. She looked in.

All of Yumi's friends were in the room, talking. Also, there were three adults she didn't immediately recognize. She thought for a moment, then remembered. The big man and woman were Marines from the United States Embassy. The other man was Michael Belpois, Jeremie's father. She thought it odd that these people were here and Ulrich's parents weren't.

The big man, Taylor Thompson, saw Miko standing at the door.

"Mrs. Ishiyama, fancy meeting you here," he said to her, "I want to tell you we all are sorry for the troubles you're going through. The Ambassador has even spoken with the Japanese Ambassador and the French President, offering whatever assistance he could."

"Thank you for your kindness," she said numbly as she walked over to the bed. In it lay Ulrich Stern.

His face was a jumble of black, blue and purple. He had a bandage around his head, and she could see a small stain of blood in the middle of a gauze pad. He had IVs in both arms. There was a tube running into his nose, presumably down to his stomach. One eye was swollen shut, but the open one looked up at her."

"I'm s-sorry, I couldn't protect her," he weakly said through clenched teeth as his tears started to flow.

"The doctors had to wire his jaws shut," Michael Belpois said.

Miko said nothing. She bent down and kissed Ulrich on his cheek, her tears mingling with his.

Aelita, Odd and Sissi went over to the woman and escorted her out of the room as she started crying again.

* * *

"Jeremie, what you're planning is insane!" his father told him once Mrs. Ishiyama left the room, "give the police what you know and let them handle it!"

"Dad, I can't," the boy replied, "if I told them what I know, they'll want to know how I know it, and that's not an explanation I want to give now."

"Jeremie," Taylor Thompson said, "you know that someone's gonna find out some day; look at how many people you've told already! It's just a matter of time."

"The only people I've told are those who absolutely need to know. Or those I absolutely trust," Jeremie replied, looking straight at Taylor Thompson and his wife.

"Son, you are dealing with things you know absolutely nothing about. You could get yourselves killed doing this, not to mention Yumi and her brother," Michael told his son.

"All I know is this, Yumi and Hiroki are out there, and I'm going to get them. If I don't, the others will. And you're right, I don't know what I'm dealing with here. That's why I called you, Master Guns. Only, you had to go and call my dad..."

"Who knows about as much about this shit as I do," Taylor replied.

Jeremie's eyes got wide at that. He turned and stared at his father.

"Jeremie, when I was young and invincible, I did many foolish things. Some of those things were for France. Some of those things got men killed."

"Were they good men, or bad," he asked.

"As far as I knew, they were very bad men, but also good men were killed, good friends."

"As far as I know, the people that took Yumi and Hiroki are very bad men, too," Jeremie said, "shall I stand by and let them hurt the ones I love?"

The adults in the room stood silent. Finally, Taylor said, "if you insist on doing this stunt, I'm in. I guess I've still got a little stupid left in me."

"I'm sure as hell coming along," said the woman, Ann Thompson, "where my husband goes, there go I and all that. Besides, I feel the maternal need to rip some asshole's balls out who would do a thing like that to children."

"What about it, Mike? You still got a little stupid left in you? I've got a vest in your size," Taylor asked his old friend.

"You're all crazy, but I'm in. Now, where are they?" Michael Belpois finally said.

"We'll know soon enough. Franz Hopper is on the case," his son replied, beaming.

* * *

Miko Ishiyama sat in the waiting room, crying. Seeing Ulrich there, in his condition, gave new reality to her dread.

_Yumi would have never backed down, never! If Ulrich was this bad, what did they do to my baby?_

All the while, Aelita Hopper and Sissi Delmas held the woman close. Odd Della Robbia sat by Sissi's side, offering his own silent support.

After a while, Miko regained her composure. She reached in her purse and got out a tissue to wipe her eyes.

"I think I'll leave you girls alone," Odd said to the others as he got up and left.

Miko took the girls' hands into her own. "Thank you," was all she could say as she squeezed them.

"Everything will be okay," Sissi told the woman, "I just know it."

"You look half-starved, Mrs. Ishiyama," Aelita told her, "let's go down and get you something to eat."

"Eat?" piped up Odd, three steps away from the women, "count me in!"

* * *

That evening was hell. The police came by again, wanting to ask more questions, wanting articles of the children's clothing for the search team's dogs. She gave them what the wanted, and they left her alone.

Takeo had been drinking again. Normally, he was a happy drunk, but tonight he was sullen and silent. The drink was to dull his pain, make it bearable.

She almost joined him. It was so tempting to lose herself in the bottle, hoping that for a little while, her burden would be eased.

Her cell phone rang. She answered it.

"Don't worry about your daughter," said the caller, "she put up quite a fight, but she wasn't hurt as much as her boyfriend. We were specifically told not to put a mark on her. She messed up a couple of my boys, though, and they took out their frustrations on him."

"Is that supposed to reassure me? For all I know, they made up for it when you called me the first time!" she spat back.

"No, that was just to let you know we knew where you were and what you were doing all day," the caller said, "now, tomorrow morning, you come alone to the Morning Star Packinghouse in the Warehouse District. If you aren't there by 6 am, you'll never see your kids in one piece again." The call ended.

* * *

"Got it! Morning Star Packinghouse, what can you get me on that?" Taylor Thompson excitedly asked the image of Franz Hopper.

"What do you want to know?" Franz replied as images of blueprints, sewer lines, electrical conduits, and building structure started popping up on the screen.

"I want every possible ingress and egress point in that rat hole," Thompson replied, "we've got a month's worth of planning to do in a little under twelve hours."


	3. My Sins Return To Visit Me

Warning: Rated for language, intense suspense situations involving children and nudity.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

* * *

Taylor and Ann Thompson were in the Embassy's Armory, getting ready for the morning. They both were dressed in black, both wearing tactical vests with armor plates in them. They both were intent on their work when they heard a noise behind them. 

"Gee, Master Guns, can we play too?"

The couple whirled around to face two Marines, Cpl. Mike "Sanka" Coffy and Cpl. Bill "Gomer" Pyle. It was Gomer who asked the question.

"What are you two numb nuts doing up at this hour?" Thompson said in his gruffest Master Gunnery Sargent's voice.

"Well," Sanka said, "we heard a rumor going 'round that you and the missus were gonna do something real stupid. We were just wondering if we could come along for the ride."

"Boys, go back to bed," Ann told the two, "if we get caught doing what we're about to do, we're gonna to have to look up to see the basement at Leavenworth."

"Master Gunnery Sargent, I want to file a sexual harassment charge against your wife," Gomer said, "she's just being a cocktease now."

"Alright you two," Thompson finally said, "get some gear. I guess there's enough stupid to go around tonight."

* * *

Takeo had drifted to sleep in his recliner late in the evening. She covered him with a blanket and went up to bed. The night was even worse without him lying next to her. 

Miko woke early, so she got up and prepared for the day. In the shower, she wondered if anyone was watching her.

She dressed and prepared to meet her fate. As she left, she kissed her husband on the cheek. He stirred and fussed a bit before settling back down. She prayed to all the gods in all the heavens that she would live to see him again.

She had to drive around a bit, but she finally found her way to the Warehouse District. After some more wandering she found the Morning Star Packinghouse. It was a meat processing plant, not a good sign. She arrived before 6 am.

She pulled up to the entrance and was met by two men. The way they carried themselves indicated they were holding weapons under their coats, a clear warning to cooperate. She stepped out of her car, and was roughly pulled away by one of the men. The other got in her car and drove off. She was led inside.

She was taken into a large room. There were boxes all around, and the room was cool, almost cold, probably due to all of the meat lockers around it. The man led her to a wooden chair, made of thick, rough lumber. There were straps attached to it. She quickly turned to flee, but found herself looking down the barrel of a gun.

"I'm sorry you don't like the accommodations," came a voice in the darkness, the man on the telephone, "but I'm afraid I must insist. Strip."

"Why!" Miko called out, "you have me! Release my children and I'll do anything you want!"

She was spun around by the man escorting her. Over in another part of the room, a light came on. There, in the middle, was Hiroki, bound to a chair similar to the one beside her, naked. He had tape covering his mouth, otherwise he would be screaming his head off. Standing next to her son, Miko saw a man, holding a knife to Hiroki's ear. Hiroki's eyes were wide as the man pressed the blade into his skin.

"Mrs. Ishiyama, we're way past the point of playing games here. It wasn't my idea, though you are a fine looking woman," said the man next to Hiroki, the man on the phone, "but this is what my employer wants. Strip to the skin, now, or I'll start stripping the skin off of your son."

She removed her clothes. The man, the leader of this gang, had her throw them into a pile off to the side of the chair. Once she complied, the man next to her forced her into the chair. Pointing his weapon directly at her face, he made her hold still while another man came and strapped her in it. Once she was secured, both men withdrew.

"Now see, that wasn't all that bad," said the man next to Hiroki. He pulled the knife away from her son and approached her. "And, just to ease your mind a little, here's the other one. Lights!"

Another light was turned on, and there was Yumi, bound to a chair and naked like she and Hiroki were. The man standing before her must have lied earlier, for Yumi was black and blue from what looked like a tremendous beating.

"I know what you're thinking, and you're right. That's one little scrapper you got there. We had to be a lot rougher with her than I thought we'd have to. My employer wasn't too upset about it, though."

"Now that you have me, let them go!" Miko screamed at the man.

"That will not be possible," said another man, a Japanese man, as he walked into view.

Miko's eyes widened in recognition.

She gasped, "You!"

* * *

In another corner of the building, figures in black were whispering. 

"SitRep."

"Six Bad Guys, counting our mystery guest."

"Location?"

"Two out on the floor, four in a room just at your 3 o'clock."

"Anything else?'

"No. Cameras are in place. One pointing in from the entrance, one from the rafters, and one from our vantage point. All good sound and video."

"What about the kids?"

"They're down there, hogtied like mom."

"I mean _our_ kids."

"I thought you were watching them, Master Guns."

"Fuck!"

* * *

The Japanese man walked up to Miko. He was an old man, well into his eighties, heavyset, but still quite fit. His hair was gray-white, and he wore spectacles, not glasses. The last time Miko saw this man was right after she married Takeo. 

"Nakamura-_san_, it has been many years," she said, inclining her head slightly.

Usagi Nakamura was her husband's father. She had met Takeo Nakamura while he was in college, and Usagi forbade his son from having anything to do with her. By that time, however, Takeo had fallen in love with her, and slept with her. She told him of her family's plight, there being no male heir in her family, and asked him to marry her and take her family's name. He accepted and they eloped to Kyoto, where her family lived. Usagi Nakamura was not pleased.

"Yes it has, Miko Ishiyama. It should, at the very least, have been Miko Nakamura!"

"You know why it had to be," she told him.

"So your family could have an heir!" Usagi shouted, "as if the Ishiyama line deserved to continue! You stole one of my most precious possessions, and now patronize me with 'you know why it had to be!'

"Your most precious possession!" she spat back, "you disowned him, you bastard! Threw him aside like yesterday's garbage! Then you went out of your way to ruin him! You even punished your daughter when she finally took pity on us and gave him help! What ever happened to the 'three other dutiful sons' that you had? Why visit despair on our house again?"

"My 'three other dutiful sons,' as you call them, disgraced themselves in my eyes. They could only produce daughters with their pathetic little peckers, so I had them killed when they failed in their duty! As to my daughter, she is a woman, good only for grunting out babies! And she only did that once, and another little bitch at that! Without having a son to carry on the family name, I only have one choice. As much as it galls me to admit, that worthless Takeo can do one thing, he can produce sons." Usagi gestured at Hiroki.

"Then why do this?" Miko cried, "Hiroki is Nakamura, why harm him?"

"These whelps are not Nakamura! They are Ishiyama! You saw to that! No, you have destroyed my family, Miko Ishiyama, and now I will destroy yours."

"Now, I will take out my retribution on your bodies," he continued as his eyes started to widen in madness, flecks of foam appearing at the corner of his mouth, "your howls will rise to the heavens as a sweet offering of incense. And when my son sees your lifeless and worthless hides, he will know that he is free at last! Oh, he will moan and cry! Wail like a baby that his 'precious wife and children' are gone! But, soon after, I will extend my hand to him, and he will return to his rightful place at my side. And he will give me a son, if I have to rent him out like a whore, he will! And when my heir is finally in my arms, I will send him to join you, in payment for his disloyalty!"

Nakamura turned to the leader of the other men. "I want you to begin now!"

"No," the gang leader replied, "I snatched the kids, I got the woman here, but I am not going to help you play out your sick little game. They're tied up and they're not going anywhere. Do whatever you like, but we're done. Boys! We're outta here!"

With that, four men walked out of a room behind Miko. They were about to leave when Usagi said, "I will triple what I paid you."

The five men stopped. The leader turned around after a moment and told him, "no, I don't think so. I am a thief. I am a murderer. I've even raped in the past. I'll do kidnappings, run drugs, whores, guns, you name it. But I do not _butcher_ children! Let's go, guys."

Usagi Nakamura reached into his suit coat and pulled out a pistol. He aimed and fired, killing the leader. The man fell, his blood spreading in a pool across the floor.

"I will pay triple," was all that Nakamura said. The other four men considered the offer for a moment, made sweeter by the elimination of one share, then turned around and came back.

"Good, good, good!" Usagi said excitedly, "now, begin with the boy. Remove the tape. I want his mother to hear how well he sings!"

One of the men went over to Hiroki and ripped the tape from his mouth. The boy screamed and started to cry when that happened. Miko turned away from the scene.

Usagi smiled for a second, then said to her, "you will watch now. First your son, then your daughter. If you close your eyes, if you turn away again, I'll stop and have your eyelids cut off. Then, when I'm done with them, it will be your turn."

Miko looked in horror at her torturer. He was lost in the fantasy of what was about to happen now. The fear and terror that had been building up inside of her since she received that first phone call threatened to consume her now, to make her abase herself, do whatever she could think of, to give her children at least a quick death.

The man next to Hiroki went over to a table, put on a heavy rubber apron, then picked up something, a knife. He looked it over, as if determining if it were the right tool for the job he had in mind, then returned to the boy with it.

"Please, make it dramatic! Play the scene for all it's worth!" cried Nakamura.

The man gave a smirk, grabbed Hiroki by his hair, then held the blade in front of his eyes. The boy screamed as he watched the blade being slowly turned back and forth in front of him, then screamed louder as the man placed the tip of the blade just under his right eye, stopped for a moment, then slowly traced the blade down his face, his neck, his right arm, to his hand, to his little finger. Nakamura squealed in glee.

"NOOOOO!" screamed Miko, now fully engulfed in her terror and despair. The man with the knife started applying pressure and Hiroki's screams grew even louder.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, there came another voice.

"Oh, there you are, Yumi!"


	4. Judgement In Mirth

Warning: Rated for language, intense suspense situations involving children and nudity.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

* * *

Everybody stopped and turned to where that voice came from. There, standing at the front of the room, was a girl. She was a teenager, and was wearing a pink tee shirt with jeans. The most striking thing about this girl was her hair, her pink hair.

"Jeremie! Over here! I found them!" the pink haired girl gaily called out, almost jumping up and down.

Almost immediately, she was joined by a boy. He looked to be about the same age as the girl. He had blond hair, was wearing a blue turtleneck shirt, docker slacks, and was wearing glasses.

"Great! Hey, guys! They're over here!" the boy, Jeremie, called out.

From the other side of the room, two more teenagers appeared, another boy and girl. The boy was blond also, but had a splotch of purple in his hair, as well as being dressed in all purple. The girl with him had dark hair and was wearing a pink top and red slacks.

"Hi Yumi!" said the purple clad boy as he walked over to where Yumi was tied. He gave the girl a quick hug, then carefully removed the tape from her mouth. When he did, Yumi started to say something, but the boy put a finger to her lips to quiet her.

The dark haired girl, in the meantime, skipped over to Miko. She picked up the coat Miko discarded when she was forced to undress and draped it over her nakedness. The pink haired girl also went over to join her.

"Watch out for the mess," the boy Jeremie called out to the girl. She looked down, saw the body of the dead gang leader, gave a little _oh!_ and sidestepped it and the spreading pool of blood. She went over to Miko, gave her a hug and a kiss hello, and whispered something in her ear.

After warning his girlfriend about the mess, the blond boy with glasses walked over to Hiroki. He gently lifted the knife from Hiroki's finger and gently pushed the man out of the way. He then bent over and spoke to the frightened boy.

"Hi, Hiroki, remember me?" he softly said, "we're going to get you out in just a minute. We've just have to take care of some business first."

All the while, Usagi Nakamura and the other gang members stood transfixed and amazed. These children just walked in, without a care in the world, almost cherubic in their innocence, and were talking to their captives like they just dropped by for tea!

"Stand where you are, or you will face the same judgment as this bitch!" Usagi yelled at the children.

"Yes, Judgment. That's why we're here today," said the boy by Hiroki, turning toward Usagi Nakamura, "but not quite the judgment you think, sir. And Mrs. Ishiyama certainly isn't the one brought before Justice, you are." The other children turned and faced him.

"Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin," said the blond boy with the purple splotch coldly.

"What does that gibberish mean?" Nakamura sneered.

"It means your life has been totaled up, and re-totaled. It has been weighed in the balance, and found wanting. All that you have gained in life you have scattered to the four winds. Henceforth, you shall have nothing," the first boy said.

Nakamura pulled his gun again and pointed it at the boy. "that doesn't make any sense at all! How dare you think you can stand in judgment over me!" His finger began to squeeze the trigger.

"Ah, Jeremie," the dark haired girl piped in, stopping Nakamura, "what did you tell me to remember about this ring-thingie?"

Nakamura turned and saw the girl looking intently at a ring, with some kind of pin dangling from it, slipped onto the middle finger of her left hand. Her right hand was holding some kind of object Usagi couldn't quite make out.

The boy cocked his head and replied, "don't pull it out."

"Oh. Heh, heh. Ooopsie."

With that, the girl took the object in her right hand and tossed it off to the side, to where three of the four gang members had been standing, entranced by the whole scene. At the same time, the pink-haired girl tossed another object towards Nakamura. As it rolled to a stop half way to him, he recognized it.

"Grenade!"

The world exploded blue-white.

* * *

_This must be some kind of insane dream_, Miko Ishiyama thought to herself.

She instantly recognized Yumi's friend Aelita Hopper the moment she appeared in the room. The insanity deepened when Aelita was joined by Yumi's other friends, Jeremie Belpois, Odd Della Robbia, and Sissi Delmas. She was so stunned by the turn of events, she forgot to be embarrassed at being naked in front of them.

Sissi brought her coat over to her and covered her up. Aelita came to her, gave her a hug and kiss and whispered in her ear that everything was going to be alright.

Then Sissi and Aelita threw something, turned and covered her with themselves as the world exploded.

There was a roar and bright, blinding light. Suddenly, all around her came the shouts of, "Everybody Down! Don't Move!"

Someone fired a shot, which was promptly returned by two more muffled shots. Miko heard something drop.

"Get Down On The Floor! NOW!" came the command. She could hear scuffling and grunts and the sound of bodies hitting the floor.

After a few seconds, sight came back to Miko. The two girls stood up from her, allowing her to look around.

Where, just seconds before, there were just Usagi Nakamura, the four gangsters, and the children, now they had been joined by five armed adults, all dressed in black, with black ski masks on their heads, covering their faces. They had Nakamura and the surviving gangsters down on the ground, and were placing plastic restraints on them. Odd and Jeremie had covered Yumi and Hiroki just before the explosions, and had now got up from protecting them. One of the adults went over to Yumi first, then Hiroki, and cut the bonds that had been holding them. Another adult, a feminine one, walked over and released her.

Miko, Aelita and Sissi walked over to where Usagi Nakamura lay bound, Miko adjusting the coat around her as she got up. Yumi and Hiroki ran over to their mother, not caring at all about their state of dress, and threw themselves on her, crying in relief and joy. Miko wrapped them in her coat, a mother bird protecting her chicks.

By now, Nakamura had fully recovered from the blast, and looked up at them with defiance. "So, this is my judgment? You can't even kill properly!" he sneered.

"Oh no, sir, you are mistaken," Sissi Delmas said, squatting down to look at him, "we never meant to kill you. We're kids, for goodness sakes! No, we have something much better in mind for you!"

She smiled at Nakamura, a predator's smile that ended at her eyes. "You're going to spend a long time in jail. I've heard that people who do bad things to children are treated extra special there, isn't that right?"

"Oh yeah, he'll be the belle of the ball," said one of the adults. Another added, "his dance card will be filled every night!"

"It's so sad," Sissi went on, "you look like you had so much, and you threw it all away. And to top it all off, you were brought down by children."

Then, she changed. Her voice was the same, her looks were the same, but she was different. Nakamura's face became a mask of fear as the Final Arbiter delivered Her Sentence. "This is your Judgment, Usagi Nakamura, Judgment-In-Mirth."

"Judgment in mirth?" he asked.

"Think of it as death by humiliation," Sissi said, herself once again, but with the hardness of a knife twisting in the wound, "by the time you die, you'll wish you had stayed in Japan as a bitter, lonely old man."


	5. Young And Invincible

Warning: Rated for language, intense suspense situations involving children and nudity.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

* * *

The police arrived at the Morning Star Packinghouse in response to an anonymous tip about gunshots coming from there. When they arrived, they found an amazing scene.

Inside the main warehouse were six men. Two were dead from gunshot wounds, and four others were hogtied with plastic restraints. To add to the strangeness, the men had their shirts pulled up over their heads, including their undershirts, and had their pants and underwear pulled down to their ankles, rendering them effectively naked. One man, a Japanese man, had, "I Am Stupid, Please Take Me To Jail," written in what seemed to be lipstick on his chest. The other men had, "I'm With Stupid, Take Me Too," written on their chests. All of the men had big, red bows tied around their necks. On the floor, close to the Japanese man, were three video cassette tapes.

To top it all off, the kidnap victims Yumi and Hiroki Ishiyama, along with their mother Miko, were sitting there, crying on one another.

Mrs. Ishiyama told her story to the police, how the kidnappers called her before the police came, told her to keep quiet, then had her come here. She then told them of Usagi Nakamura's intentions of torturing and killing them all, then later killing her husband. She even told them about the men in black who had captured the villains, but left out Yumi's friends.

Usagi Nakamura babbled about children and Judgment in _merde_, or something like that.

A search of the Ishiyama's home revealed a sophisticated video setup had been concealed there. Fibre-optic lines had been run throughout the entire house, with cameras at one end, and a video transmitter hidden in the attic at the other end. The cameras were placed so every room in the house could be watched as well as the outside.

When the police viewed the tapes recovered at the warehouse, they saw the entire scene played out, from three different angles, all corroborating Miko's story. They began hunting for the children seen in the tape, until they received a call from the President's Office, informing them that the children's involvement was a Classified Matter, and not to probe any further. Given what they already had on the tape, the police were more than happy to cooperate this time.

* * *

Jeremie and friends left the scene as soon as Taylor Thompson called the police. While they were waiting, Sissi and Aelita busied themselves wrapping their 'presents' to the police. Ann Thompson gave the girls a tube of lipstick to leave their little messages with. Taylor and the men just stood there and shook their heads.

After they were sure the police had everything in hand, they withdrew to the old factory, where the supercomputer was located, for a 'debriefing.'

"God Dammit, Jeremie! What in Hell where you thinking?" Thompson roared, "you damn near got your head blown off with that stupid stunt. What part of 'stay here' didn't you understand?"

"I understood everything, Master Guns," Jeremie replied, looking directly into Thompson's eyes with a smug little smile on his face, "you were dithering about how we were going to distract them, so we distracted them."

Sanka and Gomer were doing a very poor job hiding their laughter.

"And where the _fuck_ did those girls get stun grenades?" he raged, pointing at Sissi and Aelita, "they ain't exactly non-lethal, in case you hadn't heard!"

"Uh, Master Gunnery Sargent, I seemed to have misplaced two of my issued stun grenades," Ann Thompson said sheepishly, barely holding her own laughter.

"Judas H. Priest! I'm surrounded by Idiots! We are definitely over the Stupid Limit today!" Taylor Thompson ended his tirade, was silent for a moment, shook his head, then started laughing himself. The whole group broke down and joined him.

After the laughter released the last of the stress of what had just happened, Jeremie's father spoke, "Jeremie, Master Gunnery Sargent Thompson is correct, you know. What you did was foolish, and dangerous. But for the Grace Of God, you could have gotten yourself and your friends, all of your friends killed."

"What can I say, dad," Jeremie replied, "I'm young and invincible, and sometimes I'll do foolish things. Sometimes, it will be for France. Sometimes, it will be for the World. Always, it will be for those I Love."

* * *

With the help of counseling, Miko and her children were eventually able to put the incident behind them. Miko never told her husband all of the hateful things his father had said to her that day; there was no use hurting him any further.

When Ulrich finally got out of the hospital, the Stern family was not there, but the Ishiyama family was. When they brought him out in a wheelchair, Yumi jumped on him and wrapped as much of herself as she could around him. Hiroki, Miko and Takeo said nothing at all.

Usagi Nakamura was tried and convicted in a French Court of kidnapping, assault, attempted murder, unlawful deviant sexual behavior, and sexual abuse of minors. A smart prosecutor got an investigator from the Japanese Consulate to review the video tapes the police recovered, partially to translate the Japanese portions of the conversation recorded, but also so Japan could determine if Usagi had confessed to any crimes committed on Japanese soil. When Usagi told of murdering his three sons, the Japanese investigator's eyes got very wide, as wide as the smile on his face. Those murders had been unsolved for a long time now, and they now had a confession.

Usagi Nakamura wound up spending a very long time in a French jail, with the hope of spending an even longer time in a Japanese jail if he ever got out. And the dark haired girl's statement was very true; he did receive 'special' treatment from the other inmates, every night. And, in the very deepest blackest hours before the dawn, until the day he died, he wished he had stayed in Japan, a bitter, lonely old man.


End file.
